Challenges in working in teams - Essay Example

24 August, Challenges in working in teams It was a time when I was assigned a task for the preparation of a plan of the common needs of the multicultural human resource. In order to ensure that the plan considers needs of all workers, the manager had included members from different countries in our group. We were five people in the group. A was an Indian, B was a German, C was British, D was an Arab and E was me holding the American nationality. We were allotted a time of three weeks for this task.

We were supposed to dedicate three hours of our daily eight hours at work to this task. The manager had proposed us to use the last three hours before the break-off time for this job. The first and foremost challenge that I experienced working with this group was understanding their languages, and accordingly their personalities. We were all new recruits, so assigning us this task, was in part, the manager’s attempt to allow us an opportunity to understand ourselves better and develop a comfort level with one another.

We had to choose a leader. Since we had a total of twenty one days for the task, we decided to let everyone be a leader for four days upon his turn. I found that B was very sensitive about gestures. He would maintain a certain level of distance while talking to others whereas A would sneak a bit more into others’ matters than was necessary. C was quite formal in his tone while D was an extrovert. The differences in the overall behaviors fundamentally originated in the differences of cultures.

We had to understand this simple principle and live with it. We conducted a meeting at the very first day in which we established optimism as the motto of our group. That meant that if I found B meddlesome, I would rather think of myself as extra-reserved. Likewise, if D’s extroversion irritated someone, he was supposed to lessen his own introversion. Together, we covered up one another’s weaknesses and enhanced one another’s strengths. In order to promote our relations, we used to reserve half an hour at the end of the day in which we would chit chat, discuss issues, and resolve misunderstandings.

That not only enabled us to regulate our tension, but also promoted our relations. With our mutual effort, we were able to develop a very positive atmosphere in our group. Three weeks back, we were strangers, and at the point of completion of the task, we were the best of pals. We were surprised to find out how well we knew one another. Upon the successful completion of the task, we arranged an official party in which, our colleagues arranged a small quiz game for us. We were supposed to answer the questions about our group mates’ habits, likes and dislikes etc.

All of us scored remarkably well. The manager made us proud by declaring our group as a role model for all future groups. We were so diverse in nature, and yet so similar! It was time to celebrate!